4 minutes ago, Harad the White said:

Again (being chased by darkfriends), is not a thing that male channelers suffered. The key to that whole scene is that Thom (mistakenly) thought Matt was a channeler. None of the reasons, including yours, given above, is cornvincing.

Male channelers did suffer from that actually.  Taim became a darkfriend at some point, and they certainly chased Rand.  The shadow will always try to recruit power

2 hours ago, Harad the White said:

Cinematography

The fadeout from the setting sun over the Tinker camp to the light in the Rand/Matt/Thom barn was cinematic.

 

Some questions:

 

What made Thom compare Matt to his nephew Owyn? Had Matt changed in the short time he knew him, channeled, or cut his own throat?

 

Did the Aes Sedai leave Logain unshielded to fight the battle? Ok, the answer to this is that he knocked out the two, Kerene and Liandrin. Although it's possible Liandrin let him go (taking a chance) to gentle him, as she threatened.

Matt was displaying odd behavior already and mood swings and getting sick.  However, I think the darkfriend chasing them really put Matt on Thoms radar

2 hours ago, Harad the White said:

I'm not, and, again, in that scene. Logaine refutes the voices. He may think they are his past lives, but, imho, he is mistaken. They are Forsaken.

you are still on the forsaken speaking to logain?  they don't have that power in the books.  

everything is a matter of taste, but I thought the shadow & bone show was boring and average.  The wheel of time live setting alone is way better than the dark cgi set of s&b.  The lead actress seemed pretty mediocre and limited.  I watched that whole season and fell asleep several times, only finished because one of my family members wouldn't stop watching after starting.  I don't really remember too much other a stag, some weird bones a conductor, and cirque du Soleil chick that likes knives.

Don't think it is the forsaken talking to logain.  Its pretty well established with Rand that he could hear voices that taught him things.  aka Lews Therin.  More likely these mat be some of Logains past lives

any notice the details of how Liandrin captured Logain?  She said she took a page out of Moraine's book and snuck into camp and used lighting.  That is basically how they rescued Perrin and Egwene from the whitecloaks.  will be interesting to see if this same plan will play out this season

2 hours ago, DojoToad said:

Liked:

• Nothing is more dangerous than a man who knows the past
• Most Thom, Mat, and Rand scenes
• Lan and Nynaeve interactions
• You always get emotional when I drink
• Are you sure you haven’t already found it?
• Fade scared of mashadar?
• Moiraine confronting Logain after escape
• Using their own arrows against them
• Nynaeve’s radiant sun moment

Did not like:

• Ila still in the lead rather than Raen
• Thom fighting successfully against the fade. Should have been pinned to the wall
• Why didn’t Aes Sedai link to hold the shield?
• Why was Aes Sedai camp so far from the cave with Logain?
• Why did warders and Aes Sedai have such a hard time with Logain’s army?
• Fight choreography terrible
• About 100 people in Logain’s “army”
• Why don’t Aes Sedai and Warders stand ground after initial contact - retreating fight puts them at disadvantage 
• Moiraine left with scar on initial healing
• Why did Logain stand like an idiot while the Aes Sedai linked to gentle him - he fought everything else
• Steppin did not go into berserker rage I expected

I think Logain gave up after he saw Nynaeves power.  Moiraines talk may have unnerved him and Nynaeves miraculous power may have made him realize he is not the Dragon Reborn.  Also not confirmed yet is whether Logain can sense taveren

 which may have also happened in that scene

2 hours ago, Beidomon said:

I agree with these thoughts, and the best part is that they managed to do in a manner that felt natural. This episode was hands down the best so far. Logain was fantastic. 

 

But damn they are changing a lot. Ok, now that we’ve told Logain’s story, and finally explained a few things to the audience about the Ajahs and the OP and the madness, and started really fleshing out the characters, I hope we can now back to something a bit closer to the books? We’ve got 4 epis left to do the Ways, Fal Dara, the Blight, the Eye, and the DR reveal. If they keep adding new stuff that means they’re gonna have to keep cutting deeper and deeper. 

my main hope is this show does super high numbers and they decide to give it more budget for season 3 and beyond.  I can dream right?  10 episodes would be so much better 

58 minutes ago, divica said:

after ep 4 the show has lost me.

They transformed a pretty well written story into something that appears to be writen by a 12 year old.

 

I don't understand this obecession with the dragon stuff. Everything that happens must be about people thinking that x character is the dragon. And why weaken the story further by having nyn making something amazing that she didn't need to do and has no reason to be able to do?

I'm actually having fun with the misdirection of who the dragon is.  That Thom actually think Matt is a channeler is pretty funny to me.  I didn't originally love the idea that these people might think they are the dragon reborn, because that wasn't in the books.  I think part of the reason it works is that none of the believe itm too strongly yet.  

I do agree that Nynaeve's healing moment might have been a little overkill.  It was pretty awesome, but they are really going to have to explain her block so people don't expect her to heal everyone simultaneously  throughout the story.  

Fantastic episode, best one so far for me.  The show is really starting to build.

Tons of world-building details and foreshadowing:

a.  Birgitte Silverbow doll

b.  Full Owyn story from Thom.  Hilarious he thinks Matt is a channeler

c.  Logaine hearing voices from past lives and talking about doing better during this iteration of the wheel.  Some of that sounds similar to Rand's veins of gold experience

d.  Aram mentioning that the Tinkers leave their wagons at 20 and some even take up arms

e.  Nynaeve gaining a new respect and starting to have a new fascination with Lan.  She looked ready to explode during the whole battle.  How fitting that she exploding in a healing rage rather than a death rage.  

f.  Good way to build up tension by making it look like Matt killed that family.  they getting the creep factor real nice

g.  Slower pace, lots of conversations making the show way better.

i.  Love  the different personalities of the Ajahs.  Liandrin giving those reds a great representation, especially with her unethical black ajah leanings starting to take form.

j.  the battles and special effects are still not the best at the end, but the Logaine shielding and Nynaeve healing explosion were all great.  

Definitely way more tuned in after the 4th episode.  

6 hours ago, Agitel said:

There are some really substantial responses mixed into that last batch, if anyone only glossed over it.

 

The "Moiraine's eyes and ears" for the ta'veren rumor I'm still "meh" on, though. 

The 4 tavereren makes no sense.  Everyone saw Matr couldn't even win at the dice yet.  

Hopefully they delve into what brought Fain to the 2 rivers though because something attracted him.  

27 minutes ago, AusLeviathan said:

It's standard for streaming services to be vague about these things unless the news is very good, even those that do release figures often manipulate them to make things look good, e.g. when Netflix changed their methodology for determining views before The Witcher debuted so that it was impossible to properly compare how well it did to previous releases.

 

That's why I'm a little cynical, because they're specifically using "top 5 series launches" but Prime Video have had very few big hits and a lot of what they have considered big hits came from before 2020 when they had comparatively few subscribers.

 

With the money they put into this, the built in fan base and the massive increase in subscribers over the past two years, I'm kind of surprised that this isn't being announced as their most watched series premiere by a lot.

 

I mean what beat it? The Boys or Carnival Row when they had less than a third of the subscribers they have now? It's just kind of underwhelming news to me.

Jack Ryan was their heavy hitter so far

  not sure of the others.  Hard to say.  Jack Ryan, the Boys.  Do other shows attract that audience size?

3 hours ago, AusLeviathan said:

Now that's a PR line if I've ever heard one.

 

Most watched series premiere of the year - They haven't premiered much this year and what they have premiered hasn't blown up much so that's pretty meaningless.

 

Top 5 series launches - Given they've basically more than tripled their subscribers in the past 2 years this is not notable in the slightest, particularly since almost of their big hits were from over two years ago with they had less than a third of the subscribers they have now. I'm hoping they don't mean it was fifth because that would be fairly disappointing for the cost of the series.

It says it received tens and tens of millions of streams and is trending to exceed their lofty expectations.  Of course the meaning  all these things can be streched.  The real truth will be if users keep watching all the episodes and the streams increase as the season progresses.  Hopefully there is a viral moment or 2 that eventually explodes this on social media.  Since we all know and love the books that is certainly possible.  

Fantastic news!  WOT most watched premiere on Amazon this year.  Trending to exceed expectations which were already high!  Now all we need are a few viral moments and memes to develop so this is mass popular culture and we can hopefully get all 8 seasons!

2 hours ago, Maximillion said:

There are quite a few people who think the show ‘rocks’ … many 10/10 ratings on RT.

The flip side is that quite a few hate it. 

My hope is that enough people love it enough to keep it going but that the showrunner will listen to criticism and adapt the show to make it better in the next season. 
At this moment I can’t see anything more being Green lit beyond what already has, which I believe is three seasons.

 

Maybe you are right and the show gets cancelled after 3 seasons.  I guess we will have to wait for viewership numbers.  Hopefully the show builds up.  

However, some people are saying that Lord of the Rings will take away all the resources and budget away from WOT.  That definitely isn't true as these companies have the money for multiple hit franchises.  look at disney plus and mandalorian and all the different marvel shows.  Honestly I think the Lord of the Rings may actually be worse because the source material isn't as strong as WOT.  Tolkien's best books were already mined in my opinion.

If WOT can continue to build and attract audience and they still keep the plot of Jorsan in tact enough I'm hoping  for the full 8 seasons.

Amazon has rescued other TV shows such as the the Expanse, so I'm hoping they have the patience and vision to go for the longterm, unlike Netflix.

Many of these shows build a library of content that can be accessed for years.  The benefits are not always immediate.  Hopefully Amazon understands the necessity of having finished content in its library.  If they don't screw this up it can be a content driver for years, and it could experience late growth as they iron out all the hiccups.  

Does this show not do trailers for the next episodes?  I guess I am thinking of game of thrones that did that.

Honestly have no idea what will happen next episode.  Will Perrin and Egwene ever get captured by whitecloaks the books?

is there episode trailers for episode 4?  can't say I've seen any yet

I enjoyed many things.  Moirraines angreal, the dana scene, talk of Manetheren, the Mashiara song, Rand already fighting with Moiraine, Egwene learning from Moiraine, the scenery, Lan being able to sense the shadow, the wolves (Prefer real to CGI), lots of casual references to other parts of wot lore such as ogier, Mats escaping responsibility, and more.

So I love that we have a show.  Hopefully they can space out the action a little better because some of this is just moving way too fast and losing dramatic effect.  That and the action scenes, especially with trollocs, are too fast and blurry for me to fully appreciate..  

Leigh Butler mentioned the biggest missed opportunity in episode 1 was not showing the fade watching Rand and Rand catching something out of his eye.  That would have fit perfectly with their suspicion on Lan when he walked in the Inn.  Can't believe they missed that in the 1st episode 

I liked the Dana scene.  They are exploring the implications of the wheel and reincarnation.

Many of the darkfriends other than Ingtar had  pretty wacky reasons for becoming darkfriends.  Dana had relatable reasons for being a darkfriend.  Hopelessness and despair at constantly being put back in the same low status life situations.  Feeling powerless and despair over the ability to change lifes situations.  These people also believe the wheel weaves their life circumstances and they have little control over their lot in life.

Breaking the wheel, becoming a dark friend and supporting a new world....   These are all interesting reasons for the existence of darkfriends.  Hopefully they can keep exploring on that and building on it and will add some good depth to the series.  Especially as they start introducing the Forsaken and then into the War of Power and the breaking.  

A gleeman who can't sing in tune and encourages petty thievery and grave robbing.  I think Thom was pretty disappointing for me so far

All I can say is thank goodness they renewed Season 2 already.  Hopefully they have a crisis summit about these fan complaints and low ratings and fix a lot of the issues for season 2.  Let's just hope they get enough viewers to carry this forward.  And hopefully they listen better to Sanderson's feedback in the future!  Some of the problems you all mention are legitimate and can probably be improved too

Also, I'm excited to see the show move forward and develop.  Can't wait to see this episode 6 that Sanderson is talking about.

Didn't love it, but I will keep watching as a fan of the books.

Hopefully they are reading the fan feedback so that they can fix some of our problems.

too many of these scenes are rushed and the tension and suspense isn't being built enough.  also the action scenes are blurry and unfocused, especially with the trollocs.

Since the actors are all decent. I'm really hoping this improves by the end of the season.

Some of these scenes like Shadar Logoth need more time to build up and the technical effects weren't great for the action scenes.  The trollocs were never in focus during the section.  

Rough start to the series.  can't believe they had an extra year to work on this and the 1st episode is so mediocre.  the person I watched the show with is new to wot and didn't want to keep watching.  I had to tell her it will get better.  

this show really needs some more humor too

not sure I dig Thom's singing. surely I am not the only one